Cyclist down in Burnley

ray wrote:
The only serious resistance offered en route was by the Australian forces.

....who were driving a fleet of Prados ...

"Travis" wrote in message
oups.com...

Friday wrote:

Bikes should be issued to the military. They could ride right up to the
enemy in broad daylight and not be seen.

Wearing stealth orange flack jackets of course...

Travis


And stealth flashing lights for night usage.

HughMann wrote:
Friday Wrote:

Bikes should be issued to the military. They could ride right up to
the
enemy in broad daylight and not be seen.
Friday


In fact, the fall of Singapore in WW2 was in large part due to
bicycles.
British "Military Inteligence" ( no Spike Miligan jokes please) had
placed the Japanese forces up in North Vietnam.

North Vietnam? You are spot on with "military intelligence". The Japs
ended up landing in the north east and west of Malaya and made their way
south towards Singapore. It has been a while since I have read up on
this, but it was a long catalogue of miscommunication among the British
forces as the Japanese made their way south. I was always brought up to
believe that the Japanese had superior numbers and tactics. That was
until I read a book about the fall of Singapore. If the British had
better communications among their ranks then Malaya and Singapore might
not have fallen.

What they didnt know
was that the sneaky Japanese were stealing every bike along the way and
they were covering well over 100 miles a day by bike instead of marching
only 20 miles a day. They very quickly had a couple of Battalions on
bikes.
The surprise that the British got when the Japanese turned up 6 months
early in Singapore is the subject of many books. Of course there are
many other factors but the role of the bike is often understated.

You are right about the part bikes played in the fall of Singapore. I
believe the British destroyed a fair bit of infrastructure during their
retreat South as part of their Scorched Earth policy. The Japs got
around the lack of infrastructure using bikes.

ray wrote:
snip

Further to that, when the tyres blew, the Japanese soldiers rode on the
steel rims. This made an unholy racket on the bitumen surface, which
mislead the British into believing that the Japanese had armour.
So they retreated all the way back to Singapore in the face of tanks
that didn't exist, which does sound like a Spike Milligan joke, but it
was true.
The only serious resistance offered en route was by the Australian forces.
Cheers,
Ray

The only battle that the Japanese lost on the Malayan Peninsular was
against Australian troops (AIF?).

Resound wrote:
"Travis" wrote in message
oups.com...

Friday wrote:

Bikes should be issued to the military. They could ride right up to the
enemy in broad daylight and not be seen.

Wearing stealth orange flack jackets of course...

Travis


And stealth flashing lights for night usage.

Three rear stealth flashing lights, a stealth HID with backup flashing
LED invisibility unit, luminous stealth safety vest, reflective tape
and stickers everywhere to help them blend in....

Travis